Forensic classification of intentional murders, committed in conditions of obscurity

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the problems of forensic classification of intentional murders committed in conditions of obscurity. It is noted that the detection and investigation of intentional murders is complicated by a large number of their varieties, each of which has its own characteristics: specific methods, traces, motivation of the offender, the nature of his connections with the victim, and so on. It is emphasized that the structure and content of the basics of the methodology of investigation of intentional murders committed in conditions of obscurity should be dictated by the place of such a crime in the forensic classification of pre-meditated murders. It is proved that the division of non-obvious murders into ones with sudden intent, and ones, intent to committing which arose in advance is the most significant for the proposed study. These subtypes of non-obvious murders differ in the typical features of the victim, the situation and methods of commission, the motivation of the offender. By the motivation of the offender, most often in conditions of non-obviousness, murders are committed for selfish, hooligan motives, murders for revenge, to satisfy sadistic (sadistic-sexual) needs, contract killings, and so on. It is concluded that intentional murder, committed in conditions of obscurity is a specific type of premeditated murder. It is proposed to define intentional murder, committed in conditions of obscurity as a murder committed in the absence of eyewitnesses, commitment of which resulted in a small number of traces (due to their concealment by a criminal or for other reasons), and the initial stage of the investigation of which characterizes by the lack of information a crime and the absence of signs that directly indicate the offender. It is stated that the "non-obviousness" of the murder is a characteristic of both the event of the crime (primarily the circumstances of its commission) and the initial stage of its investigation. Such murders can be further divided into subspecies (contract killing, murder with dismemberment of a corpse, disguised by staging, etc.). Each subspecies has its own specifics of disclosure and investigation.